All of us necessarily hold
many casual opinions that are
ludicrously wrong simply
because life is far too short
for us to think through even
a small fraction
of the topics that we come across.

Julian Simon

Today's
Meditation:

It's
interesting to see how many people are "experts"
on so many topics that they've never actually
researched. Even though none of us have the time to
be truly expert in more than two or three topics, we tend
to think that we know all we need to know about things
simply because we've heard someone else say something
about them.

And
so what? What's wrong with this? Isn't it just
a question of claiming to know something we don't?
And how can that harm us?

If
we hold these casual opinions that are wrong and make no
attempt to find out what's actually right, then we're
losing an opportunity to learn something that could be
very important to us. And in many situations,
stating these casual opinions can prove to be harmful when
someone takes us at our word, when someone believes us and
trusts us because we come across as knowing more than we
actually do.

The
most important thing that we can do is acknowledge that
much of what we think we know is simply second- or
third-hand knowledge that may or may not be right.
If we can acknowledge this fact, then we may be more
careful with how we present information to others and how
we present ourselves to them, too. It's not
necessary to know everything, and the words "I don't
know" can be very useful in helping us learn and
develop credibility with others.

Questions to
consider:

How do we develop casual opinions that are simply
wrong?

What messages do we send to others when we express
those opinions as fact?

Why do we feel it's important to be seen as experts on
so many different things?

For further
thought:

Knowledge
is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves,
or we know where we can find information on it.

We
have some
inspiring and motivational books that may interest you. Our main way of supporting this site is
through the sale of books, either physical copies
or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the
online reader). All of the money that we earn
through them comes back to the site
in one way or another. Just click on the picture
to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and
non-fiction!